| In 38.6, Leza explained her beliefs about salvation and has given Biblical
scriptures to support them. Likewise, in note 4 I have explained my beliefs
about salvation and have given Biblical scriptures to support my ideas. It
should be obvious to everyone that we both can not be right. It would behoove
those who are sincerely seeking truth to prayerfully study both note 38 and
note 4, and to ask the Lord which (if any) is right.
To provide correlation between the two notes, I am listing the replies to
note 4 that pertain to the topics Leza discussed in 38.6. The replies that
do not reference the Book of Mormon or Latter-day revelation in the title
are based on Biblical scriptures.
Salvation:
4.23 The Pentecostal Pattern
4.24 Faith
4.25 Christ is the Gift!
4.26 Salvation is Conditional
4.27 Faith and Works
4.28 Love
4.29 Repentance
4.30 Baptism
4.31 The Holy Ghost
4.32 Obedience to Jesus Christ
4.33 Examples of the Pentecostal Pattern
4.34 The Book of Mormon teaches Faith
4.35 The Book of Mormon teaches Faith & Works
4.36 The Book of Mormon Teaches Love
4.37 The Book of Mormon Teaches Repentance
4.38 The Book of Mormon Teaches Baptism
4.39 The Book of Mormon Teaches The Holy Ghost
4.40 The Book of Mormon Teaches Obedience
4.41 Our Freedom to Choose
4.42 The Book of Mormon Teaches Free Agency
4.43 Latter-day Revelation: Spheres of Freedom
4.44 The Fall of Adam
4.45 Born in Sin
4.46 The Atonement of Jesus Christ
4.47 What Happens to Children Who Die?
4.48 The Book of Mormon Teaches The Salvation of Children
4.49 We are Adopted to Christ
Our Eternal Destiny:
4.50 Where Did We Come From?
4.51 Jesus is the Firstborn
4.52 War in Heaven
4.53 Spirit Brothers and Sisters
4.54 Latter-day Revelation: Where did we come from?
4.55 Why are we Here?
4.56 The Book of Mormon Teaches A Probationary State
4.57 The Spirit World
4.58 The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
4.59 The Resurrection of Everyone
4.60 The Judgment
4.61 Many Mansions
4.62 Latter-day Revelation: Salvation for the Dead
4.63 Latter-day Revelation: The Three Degrees of Glory
4.64 Latter-day Revelation: Outer Darkness
4.65 Hell
4.66 Latter-day Revelation: Eternal Marriage
4.67 The Plan of Salvation
4.68 Latter-day Revelation: The Glory of God
Blood Atonement is discussed in note 56 (I haven't posted my material yet).
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Jesus made it possible,through him,to be forgiven for our sins.This,
in no way,took away our responsibilitiy to ourselves or others.We
must still answer to him for our conduct,and,accordingly,accept
the consequences of our actions.Being a kind,loving person,he will
understand us,and will allow us to make our own way,but,will allow
us to take responsibility for what we do.We may be saved by his
grace,only we must earn our place.
Peace
Michael
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| In her report, Leza referred to speculation by Orson Hyde that Jesus was
married. As she pointed out, that belief is not taught in our scriptures.
Therefore, that belief is not Mormon doctrine.
Individual members of the Church, whether General Authorities or not, are free
to speculate on things not clearly explained in the scriptures, but those
speculations do not constitute Mormon doctrine. I would hope that no one would
criticize the Church for speculations made by individual members, even if those
members are General Authorities.
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Leza:
You have obviously done a lot of reading. I feel though that you have
missed the boat on quite a few points. It seems to me that when
most non-LDS people talk about salvation, they are not too clear as to what
they really mean. Perhaps if you could give your definition of precisely
what salvation is. Then we could at least understand what the other is
saying and why.
As it stands, all I know is how you believe salvation comes, not what it
is.
With regard to the points that you have misrepresented:
SONS OF GOD: The "sons of God" as referred to in the Scriptures refers to
those who had received the gospel, or in other words, they were following
the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As far as spirit children is
concerned, ALL who have lived or will yet live on the earth are the spirit
children of our Father in Heaven.
ETERNAL LIFE: Eternal life is synonymous with the kind of life enjoyed by
God. All faithful saints will be blessed with this gift, which is the
greatest of all of the gifts of God.
HEAVEN: I fail to see where you describe these 4 levels. We believe that
there are 3 degrees of glory that we may attain. The gospel however has as
its goal the highest degree, namely the Celestial glory. This is not a
foreign concept to most biblical scholars, as the Savior himself told the
apostles that in his Father's house there were many mansions. I believe
the Old Testament refers to these as well, even in more detail.
IMMORTALITY: We believe the "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive". This cannot be made any clearer. To be resurrected by
no means constitutes salvation. It simply means that all mankind will be
resurrected to an 'immortal' state. Jesus Christ broke the bonds of death
for all, not just a select few.
ATONEMENT/SALVATION BY GRACE: Christ's atonement took place while He was
yet alive in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He suffered for all of the
sins of mankind,ie. He paid the price for the laws that were and would be
broken. This atonement was finally consummated upon the cross where He
willing gave up his life so that He could take it up again, thus braking
the bonds of death as mentioned previously. Thus ALL mankind will rise
from the dead, but to reap the full benefits of the atonement, ei. to have
your sins remitted, you must accept the atonement, and take upon yourself
the name of Christ, and keep his commandments. Was it not the Savior who
said if ye love me, keep my commandments?
GOSPEL: The Gospel encompasses all of the teachings of Jesus Christ and
the authority to administer its ordinances etc. This authority cannot
coexist in more than one church, therefore we believe that the authority to
administer the ordinances or the Gospel is held in the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This authority was taken from the earth
during the apostasy and was restore to the earth to the prophet Joseph
Smith.
Your discussion on "MORMON SALVATION" states that general salvation is the
deliverance of ALL individuals from sin and everlasting punishment. This
is a false statement. There is no such thing as general salvation. As
stated earlier, ALL will be resurrected from the dead. This constitutes a
restoration. If you were wicked in life, then you cannot be restored unto
righteousness. Read the Scriptures more carefully as they are quite
explicit here.
It is not logical, nor is it taught in the Bible that we are to be saved by
grace only, that there is nothing for us to do. Why then does the Lord
tell us to keep the commandments? Why is there such a thing as sin if we
need only say we believe in Jesus Christ? The devil also believes in Jesus
Christ and I doubt that he is a candidate for salvation. That we need to
believe is true, but to believe alone is like saying I will build
something, but never putting forth any kind of effort to accomplish the
task.
I hope that I don't sound like I'm ranting or raving, but I believe that if
someone is going to broadcast my beliefs to a body of people, they should
at least get it right. They don't have to accept it, just state it
correctly.
Don.
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